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Monday, February 17, 2014

Quilts to give away - Quilts #2 (x2) done

I like having the challenge of working towards a goal. This year's goal is to finish all the projects on my QUILTS TO DO IN 2014. This month I've been busy. I completed the Aussie Stack n Slash earlier this month.My 2nd challenge this month has been to quilt two smaller quilts to give away. One is going to a lovely lady who is living with Cancer. The other, I'm not sure....more about this quilt later.

This quilt I'm calling Thorn Patch. I wrote a series of patterns a few years ago based on the disappearing 9 patch block. In the process of closing my business, I misplaced the files for this series of quilt patterns I know this was a sample made for me by one of my staff to test the pattern instructions. I am hoping that as I continue to clean up and organize this year...the patterns will turn up.

This Disappearing 9 Patch quilt was made with only 2 fabrics. Two lovely purple and blue batiks have created beautiful diagonal lines.

The diagonal lines were the perfect space to try a new quilt pattern. I saw something like this on Pinterest. Other than having to continually roll the quilt back and forth, it was worth it.The dark blue rectangles and the small squares were quilted with an all over large meander pattern.It's always nice to have a look at the back of the quilt to have a closer look at the quilting. I quilted this with a very dark blue invisafil thread.

Now on to the other quilt. This was probably a sample of the Simple Strips Pattern....again, another pattern that is carefully stored with the other quilt patterns!

The Block pattern is made with 3 strips in light to dark values of 2 different colours. The strip sets are sewn together and then cut on the diagonal. This quilt is a bit of a challenge because the outer edges of the blocks are cut on the bias.

I was able to quilt this quilt with minimal rolling on the frame. The pink "blocks" and the borders were quilted with an all over swirl pattern. The green "blocks" were quilted with a flower and leaves. The actual block is made of pink and green strips. Check out the bottom right hand corner...that shows the block clearly. Putting 4 blocks together creates the green "block" in the center.I was exploring Pinterest a while ago. I found a site for machine sewn binding that I thought I would try. Pat Sloan gives a good demo. My sample is not so great. For some strange reason I added a wool batt on top of the cotton batting. I thought that I would add a bit of extra loft for interest, but forgot to split the wool and the quilt was very thick.

Back to the binding. This binding is sewn first to the back side of the quilt and then rolled to the front and machine stitched in place with an applique stitch.

The problem with my binding was that I had a very think and lofty batting that I probably should have trimmed away. It was quite thick for the width of the binding. I usually cut my binding 2 1/2" wide and fold it....the instructions were for 2 1/4" cut width. That extra 1/4" would have made a world of difference. Oh, well. I'll probably use it as a teaching sample at some point.

The binding is sewn to the back of the quilt. Then it's folded over to the right side and stitched down with an applique stitch.

The straight part of the applique stitch is supposed to follow the original stitching line. On the back of the quilt the straight stitch should sit right in the fold of the binding.